1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to software management. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus to facilitate remote software management by applying address-sorting rules on a hierarchical directory structure.
2. Related Art
Software management presents many challenges to an administrator of an enterprise system. This software management can encompass many aspects of configuring and maintaining the enterprise system, such as software distribution, configuration management, software management, and policy management, such as enforcing rules for virus scanners.
In smaller enterprise systems, it is feasible for an administrator to visit each computer within the enterprise to create the necessary configurations. However, as the enterprise grows or spreads to multiple locations, it quickly becomes impractical for the administrator to visit each computer.
Administrators, therefore, have developed methods to remotely configure the computers within an enterprise system. These methods, while advantageous, present their own set of problems. Managing a computer system from a central location can create a bottleneck when possibly hundreds of computers are trying to update their configuration simultaneously. This can be exacerbated by slow links between the central location and remotely located groups of computers.
Managing multiple configurations across an enterprise system also presents problems for the administrator. For example, a sales department may need a different configuration than a product development department, or parts of the enterprise in different locations may need different configurations. At times a configuration may apply to an entire group of computers, while at other times a configuration may apply to only a single computer. Remembering which group that a particular computer belongs to, or remembering if that particular computer requires a special configuration, is a formidable and error-prone task.
What is needed is a method and an apparatus to remotely manage software on computers within an enterprise without the disadvantages presented above.